Adventure Magazine Cover, October 30, 1924 — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Death Watch arms lifted above his head in surrender. Across the black pine box sprawled Reuben Skaggs, the evil leer fixed on his face by death. Half-way to the door, beside the overturned table, lay Gus, a pistol clutched in his fingers, a widening red stain about his heart. Dave Arnett stood with his back against the door, straight and stolid as a sentinel. His bronzed features were calm and his arms were folded across his breast, but he still held his revolver, ready. Clint regarded him with bitter reproach. “Dave, I’m afraid you acted too hasty,”’ he sighed, shaking his head. ‘Reuben and Gus were only scared and wanted to get out of here. I don’t much blame ’em. With all my plans and scheming, I ain’t proved noth- ing on them or nobody else. I’ve just made you commit murder, that’s what I’ve done.” He sighed again, his thick shoulders drooping. The deputy was unmoved. He nodded toward the Skaggses. “‘They’d drawed their guns,”’ he affirmed, “and started at me a-shootin’. Yo’ er no yo’, Clint, I had a right under the law to kill in. self-defense.” ‘The door behind him shook from some outside pressure and Dave opened it. Andy 159 Spurlock, drenched: and:-grimed with mud, stepped into the room. Under one arm he carried a bundle wrapped in a partly burned quilt. Sheriff Hawkins, turning the electric torch about the room, briefly explained to him what had happened. f if THROUGH the window the men nd could see the faint light of another — day rimming the eastern hills. The sky had cleared and an early robin was warbling in the thicket behind the cabin. Andy undid the bundle and took from it a pair of brown shoes, split across the toes, and a large kitchen knife. ‘Yo’ got the right men, Dave,” he said. “T found this quilt a-smolderin’ in the Skaggses’ fireplace and the shoes stuck under the bed whar hit come from. In the kitchen was this knife, the blade washed clean, but, if ye’ll look sharp, thar’s somethin’ mighty like blood close up ag’in the hilt.”’ He handed the evidence to the sheriff. “Yas, Clint,” he added, grinning, ‘‘I ‘low I’ll be yore deputy so long as yo’ll let me. I like the temper o’ yer mind. And Dave here, keep him too. His trigger-finger shore saved this State a considerable expense.” comicbooks.cO inn